Galapagos is a bizarre, simultaneous strangulation and unleashing of words, existing in a space somewhere between prose and poetry.
Fátima Vélez embraces all aspects of the human and reminds us that despite the supposed sophistication of the human species, we are gross beings. We lose teeth and fingernails, and at times we scab, peel, and leak pus. If not physically vile, we can be disgusting in our actions and beliefs, becoming violent, misogynistic, racist, elitist, greedy, and utterly unempathetic. The content of this book reflects all the things mentioned above (in addition to many other content warnings), which naturally makes it a difficult read. But Vélez, and the characters, find some beauty and companionship in the world amidst this.
The kind of community shown in Galapagos leans into the ‘otherness’ of queerness but is also brutally honest in depicting instances of ‘othering’ within queer spaces. The last part, the actual voyage, was the most interesting, as the ship carrying Lorenzo and his friends became a sort of microcosm of society. I particularly liked the scene where one of the characters goes overboard, and the others debate whether to save him or not:
“And though we’re all uneasy at the sound of a semi-living body hitting the water, we don’t do anything … What’s the difference between a hooked fish and a drowning man, between a lobster in a supermarket tank and a moribund man, both with pleading eyes.”
There isn’t a great deal of clear characterization, and I was only able to gain a vague shape and sense of each character--though I wouldn't say this is a fault of the novel, rather a complexity of the characters that means they resist description. Vélez’s style, however, is at its most lucid in the ‘body horror’ and distasteful moments. Weak stomachs beware. I’d be curious to learn more about the translation choices made for this book, especially considering the experimental style. Oddly enough, the lack of dialogue punctuation and the eccentric paragraph spacing harmonize with the strangeness of the story, creating something unique, unsettling, and fascinating in its form as much as in its content.
Thank you to Astra Publishing House and NetGalley for providing an ARC; all opinions are my own.
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